The week after the weekend before

Well what I actually did on Monday evening was answer phone calls and e-mails from people saying how much they'd enjoyed the show(s) then watch an episode of 'C.S.I. New York' (which featured the band Train amid the usual blood and guts, and very good they sounded too) before having a relatively early night - only to wake up around 4 o'clock in the morning wondering about what songs The Price should play at next month's Ruislip gig. I really must learn to switch off sometimes.

Tuesday evening saw the first Flying Squad rehearsal for a while - we're playing at (you've guessed it!) The Load Of Hay this coming Saturday (3rd April if you fancy coming along) and with Mike away Huggy is depping on bass. We last gigged back in February so there was lots for Andy, Dave and myself to remember as well as a fair but for Huggy to learn; we'll have another get together before the gig which should do the trick.

Wednesday I heard that Jim Marshall had died - no, not the boss of the well-known guitar amplifier manufacturers, but the photographer who's amazing images of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who seem to me to sum up the 1960's rock music 'scene' in many ways - have a look at his website and see how many you recognise...

Thursday it was up to 'We Will Rock You' to service the guitars before Stuart the guitar repairman and myself walked across town for the latest in our occasional visits to 'The Jersey Boys'. When we arrived chaos reigned as an understudy rehearsal was taking place; we re-strung a couple of Telecasters before checking how much has to be done when we return next Thursday - rather a lot as it happens!

It was a busy Balcony day on Friday, including a visit from Attendants (and indeed Cane Toads) bass player Ken who came in to order some t-shirts (unsurprisingly!) for their upcoming round of re-union gigs (everybody's doing it!) including the one with us supporting The Members. I'll heroically resist re-promoting it here... oh, go on then - all the details and links are at the end of the previous posting. Hurrah!

Yesterday evening it was time to point an electric guitar at an audience again (at last!) as Youngblood played at The Mermaid in St.Albans. With Roger away drumming for The Lee Ryder Band myself and the two Terry's were joined by the excellent Geoff Nicholls on drums, who people like me remember from the 'Rockschool' T.V. programme back in the 1980's. When we arrived we found the pub to be reasonably busy with no obvious place for a band to play - when we told them we were the band the bar staff simply moved the people from the area where the bands play. I thought this would annoy the people concerned, but they just moved as asked and carried on chatting as if nothing had happened. I suppose the locals know that they're sitting where the bands play and don't mind moving when the time comes? After a quick rehearsal (a.k.a. 'talk-through the set with Geoff') we went on to play 2 sets to an ever-more appreciative audience, with Geoff doing a fine job behind the kit and Terry as excellent as ever on vocals-and-walking-up-to-members-of-the-audience-and-getting-them-to-sing-along - how does he do that without getting insulted? Or worse?! A good gig although rather less euphoric than the previous weekend's shows - back to work in more ways than one...